Swimming can be part of everybody's life at one time or the other. It is practiced as a recreational activity, as an emergency measure in case of an accident happening in water, or during a swimming competition. The basics of swimming is usually learned at home and can taught by unprofessional swimmers or by basic public courses.
To perfect their swimming techniques, some swimmers may want the supervision of a professional trainer or swimmer, who can teach the specific techniques of body motion and respiration in order to reach a higher level in the art of swimming.
In order to teach swimming in a the most effective way, the trainer needs to have a good visual image of his/her trainee as he/she executes the swimming motion. The trainer also needs to move as the swimmer progresses in a lap or possess the tools to allow him/her to follow and analyze the swimmer's progression during a swimming exercise. On the other hand, the swimmer will require guidance and explanations from the teacher to clearly understand the good practices. With time and lots of practice, swimming reflexes are created in his/her mind, which helps him/her anticipate the swimming exercise in terms of body movement precision, speed, pace, effort and duration.
In the past, many devices and apparatus have been designed to help the swimmer learn how to swim or to enhance his/her swimming techniques. The first series of apparatuses consists of swim training systems to be used above or out of water. For instance, Profaci (U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,912), Cymbalisty (U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,676) and Doane (U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,591) have defined different types of machines allowing to simulate the swimming motions and to reproduce some of the forces that are felt by the swimmer during his/her swimming exercise. Even though these machines may enhance the monitoring capabilities of the trainer and allow him/her to share advices in real time to the swimmer, the swimmer can only react to the comments of the trainer, he/she also cannot adjust his/her moves with reference markers and only has a simulation of real water condition. Thus, the habit so created do not include all the same parameters as a real life swim into water.
A second group of invention have integrated the use of computers in training program systems. Indeed, Bernacki (U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,565) has created a system linking the swimmer to a computerized machine with the use of a cable which induces a cable tension according to the required degree and type of training. Even though the performances of the swimmer may be enhanced, the visual reference markers are missing in water and the use of this apparatus doesn't involve any form of teaching with respect to body motion of the swimmer. In Pendergast et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,379), the visual reference is added with the help of a special pair of goggles which emit a light that should set the required pace of the swimmer, depending on the selected training. In this case, even if the visual reference is there, the swimmer can still only wait for the next light to set the pace he/she should be aiming at, but he/she cannot visually anticipate the set goal as he approaches it during his/her swimming exercise.
Another type of invention includes motion training system in water with the aid of a visual reference. Kryder (U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,570) has elaborated a system of mirrors, located at different places and at different depths in a pool. This system allows the swimmer and the trainer to visualize the motion of the swimmer from different angles and allows a real-time motion correction possibility for the swimmer. However, this system lacks the pace visual marker, lacks the teaching possibility of the right body motion and it is also preferably installed in pools.
There is therefore a need for a swim training system offering real-time visual references to the swimmer allowing him/her to anticipate the course and the execution of a typical swimming exercise.
There is furthermore a need for a swim training system which allows a teacher to monitor the swimmer during a swimming practice in order to establish the required pace of the swimmer and give advices regarding the body motion techniques with respect to a reference which is visually available, physically reachable and easy to anticipate to the swimmer.
There is also a need for a system to help develop the swimmer's swimming techniques and reflexes during different type of swimming practice.
There is finally a need for an easy to install and inexpensive apparatus to be used in any water source or type of pools.